Questions about an advertisement

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"HATHAWAY shirts wear infinitely longer - a matter of yours. They make you look younger and more distinguished, because of the subtle way HATHAWAY cut collars. The whole shirt is tailored more generously, and is therefore more comfortable. The tails are longer, and stay in your trousers. The buttons are mother-of-pearl. Even the stitching has ante-bellum elegance about it."

This is also an excerpt from an ad. I have some questions about it.
In the first sentence, what does "wear infinitely longer" mean? In terms of time or length? The word "generous" in this paragraph means "large and comfortable". Am I right? And what is "ante-bellum elegance"?

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 579 • Replies: 7

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@Justin Xu,

Justin, I have a question... have you been able to get to the threads you already started, to read the replies you have already gotten? There has been a lot of duplication. (You ask something, it's answered, then you ask again.)

At any rate, yes, you are correct about generous referring to "large" or "roomy" here.

Antebellum literally means "before the war," (latin), it usually is used to refer to the period before the American Civil War. That time period is now far enough in the past that most people now can't readily think of what "antebellum elegance" would mean, but I seem to remember this ad was from the 1920's or 1930's, in which case that period would be more fresh in people's memories.

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@Justin Xu,

Justin Xu wrote:

"HATHAWAY shirts wear infinitely longer - a matter of yours. They make you look younger and more distinguished, because of the subtle way HATHAWAY cut collars. The whole shirt is tailored more generously, and is therefore more comfortable. The tails are longer, and stay in your trousers. The buttons are mother-of-pearl. Even the stitching has ante-bellum elegance about it."

This is also an excerpt from an ad. I have some questions about it.
In the first sentence, what does "wear infinitely longer" mean? In terms of time or length?

In terms of time - they could have said 'last infinitely longer.'

Quote:

The word "generous" in this paragraph means "large and comfortable". Am I right? And what is "ante-bellum elegance"?

Yes, that sounds right. As for Antebellum, it refers to the pre-civil war era in America -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antebellum_Era_in_the_United_States

Cycloptichorn

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@sozobe,

Whoops, the other reply I made to the "infinitely longer" part was when another person asked. Sorry.

http://able2know.org/topic/169969-1#post-4556163

I guess several people from a single class have all found A2K and are asking their homework questions here...

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@sozobe,

I'm sorry sozobe. I don't understand the meaning of "te to the threads", but I see what you mean. I read all the replies and thank you very much for everyone who answered them. But if there is any duplication, please tell me where. I think perhaps it is because some words or phrases come under different context, at least different in my opinion, so I asked a second time. You may be able to detect the similarities in my questions. But at present I cannot notice any. Please tell me and I will understand what you mean by "duplication". Thank you very much!

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@sozobe,

I see. That's because our translation professer, a very famous translation master in China once told us this website, so...

Any way, thank you very much for helping us.

2 Replies

@Justin Xu,

Justin Xu wrote:

I see. That's because our translation professer, a very famous translation master in China once told us this website, so...

Any way, thank you very much for helping us.

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